After hanging with me for the first few days of Walkabout I, my good friend Chris proposed we embark on a full-scale buddy trip the next summer. The mission: to begin in Mexico, drive the entire length of the American west coast, and end the trip in Canada, stopping wherever the scenery or the urge struck. I accepted the invitation and purchased plane tickets.

 

Little did I know I would lose my job in March. Thankfully, I found another one in May, but it complicated things: I would have to return from the trip and immediately pack my belongings and move away from the city I'd lived in for 13 years. So it was with a some melancholy and trepidation that I set out on this journey.

 

But the trip, and a mini-reunion with a group of high school friends taught me the great lesson of Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.